# Done your taxes yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 5, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888 "2007-04-05T19:11:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/1 "2007-04-05T19:11:55Z")
American dopers — done yer taxes yet? I’ve got a significant refund coming and I still haven’t been able to sit down and do this stupid annual chore yet. I do mine online now and, even though I have to do the 1040, it rarely takes me more than an hour. Some may call it procrastination but I prefer to think of it as civil disobedience. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/2 "2007-04-05T19:17:49Z")
Not only have I already done my taxes, but I’ve gotten my tax return and deposited it. Being a student who needs to fill out the FAFSA means getting used to doing your taxes as soon as you can so you can fill out your FAFSA before all the federal student aid is gone. ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/3 "2007-04-05T19:19:51Z")
I’m very proud of myself for doing my taxes last week rather than waiting until April 12th like I usually do! ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/4 "2007-04-05T19:21:27Z")
Filed yet? Pftt. I’ve already spent my refund. ☹ I got about $3,500 back. It went to bills. With last year’s refund I fenced in my back yard and bought $1,000 dollars worth of plants and flowering shrubs, and undertook a MAJOR landscaping project. So, I’m still enjoying the returns from last year’s refund, and this years refund just went :: poof :: ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/5 "2007-04-05T19:23:02Z")
For the past…oh, hell, whole lot of years, my wife and I would be at H&R Block some point in the 2nd week of April, trying to figure out how much we owed. This year I picked up a copy of TurboTax, sat down with it in late February and got everything done. The gummint deposited our nicely fat refund check via direct deposit over a month ago. Makes me wish we would’ve had a baby and bought a house a long, long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/6 "2007-04-05T19:23:19Z")
Filed, gotten the refund, and am carefully ignoring my bank account’s temporarily happy balance. ---
**Author:** ![Jelymag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jelymag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelymag)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/7 "2007-04-05T19:26:15Z")
I got stressed out trying to figure out what goes where trying to do it myself- we had a few unusual things this past year- and finally we gave up and went to Jackson Hewitt last week. Eagerly awaiting a decent refund. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/8 "2007-04-05T19:29:21Z")
Better to do it early if you have a refund coming – otherwise the government has your money longer. I finished mine in February. Have both my refunds. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/9 "2007-04-05T19:29:22Z")
Filed, got a small refund, realized I missed some deductions, filed an amended return, and got the additional refund this week (also small but hey, still my money back, right?). I was nervous about how the amended return was going to work, but it was suprisingly easy. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/10 "2007-04-05T19:31:00Z")
This past Saturday. An ex-IRS guy comes to our house, we give him all our paperwork, he asks a few questions about anything that’s changed, puts the numbers into his laptop and a week later sends us a return to send in. Second year we’ve used him. It took an hour and a half last year, one hour this. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/11 "2007-04-05T19:31:26Z")
My wife did ours last week with the help of Turbotax (once again more than earning her year’s keep IMO.) There is no reason those things have to be that complicated. And then, even after you read all the instructions and complete all of the schedules, you still aren’t completely sure you did it right. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/12 "2007-04-05T20:30:12Z")
I haven’t actually filled out the form, but I went through the calculations and found out I owed $172 this year. I’ll probably do it for real this weekend and send it off. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/13 "2007-04-05T20:44:50Z")
[QUOTE=Duke of Rat] I haven’t actually filled out the form, but I went through the calculations and found out I owed $172 this year. I’ll probably do it for real this weekend and send it off. [/QUOTE] That happened to me, too, and I waited to send it in because I didn’t have the cash on hand. I waited about a week, and got a letter from a school I forgot I went to last year\*. Turns out, that qualified me for the Lifetime Learning Credit, and my refund ended up being closer to $880, about a $1k difference. \*It was one class, the last of my undergrad, , taken online, and I thought I had paid for it in '05. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/14 "2007-04-05T20:51:33Z")
I’ve done my taxes (or had them done) but haven’t paid them yet. I put the money into a 90 day CD to squeeze the last possible droplet of interest before sending them in. I’m having to pay $9,000 in taxes on an inheritance (pre-taxed IRA residue)= THAT FRIGGING SUCKS. I’m starting to understand Republicans a bit better. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/15 "2007-04-05T21:38:40Z")
Finished them on Tuesday and went in the mail today (no time yesterday, between a funeral and other stuff.) Now I just sit back and wait for the ~$2,200 to get deposited (and to a poor grad student, that’s a hefty chunk of change.) ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/16 "2007-04-05T21:51:46Z")
For several years used TaxACT, a bargain that includes federal, state and a fed e-filing. It imports last year’s info, and it (almost) makes it fun,it’s so easy. Does complex calculations, such as tax on Social Security income, etc in a nanosecond. Retired, I pay quarterly estimated tax, and try to get it as close as possible so Uncle Sam does not get any of my money interest-free, but difficult as never can anticipate how much dividend and interest income will get. This year the ol’ stock market was better, so got more than planned, and owed a fair amount of tax. However, with e-filing, I can just stipulate that IRS can take it out of my checking account, and can specify the date. Naturally, I put in 4/17. Very easy compared to the old way of filling out the damned forms and calculating it myself. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/17 "2007-04-05T23:04:46Z")
Speaking of Jackson-Hewitt, they’ve been on the news a lot the past couple of days, particularly the ones in Chicago, Detroit, Raleigh-Durham, and Atlanta, for [fraud](http://www.insidetxbiz.com/adminnm/templates/frontpage.asp?articleid=1472&zoneid=1). Undoubtedly the vast majority of their returns and their franchisees are valid, but those aren’t the ones getting coverage obviously. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/18 "2007-04-05T23:13:02Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Better to do it early if you have a refund coming – otherwise the government has your money longer. I finished mine in February. Have both my refunds. [/QUOTE] If that’s a real concern, then you shouldn’t be paying that much in the first place. A big refund means you gave Uncle Sam an interest free loan; between January and April of the next year ain’t exactly the best time to stop the bleeding. Adjust your exemptions and reap the larger paycheck. Ptu the extra money in savings and reap the benefit. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/19 "2007-04-05T23:24:30Z")
Got my federal refund a few weeks ago, and just got my state refund today. Woohoo! ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888/20 "2007-04-05T23:27:49Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] I’ve done my taxes (or had them done) but haven’t paid them yet. I put the money into a 90 day CD to squeeze the last possible droplet of interest before sending them in. I’m having to pay $9,000 in taxes on an inheritance (pre-taxed IRA residue)= THAT FRIGGING SUCKS. I’m starting to understand Republicans a bit better. [/QUOTE] Don’t get too understanding. The “Death Tax” the republicans are always trying to abolish only applies to the estate tax on estates worth millions. In which case you’d probably not care about a $9K tax bill. I don’t think it has anything to do with your case… …what is your case, anyway? Why would YOU (rather than the estate) have to pay $9K in taxes on anything inherited? I’m genuinely confused on this. My google search on “IRA residue” doesn’t help. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/done-your-taxes-yet/398888.md?page=2)